November 2009 Accolades

Posted: November 2, 2009 at 1:00 am, Last Updated: November 4, 2009 at 9:45 am

Accolades is a monthly column that recognizes the latest professional achievements of Mason faculty and staff members.

Send information to gazette@gmu.edu. Please note: The next Accolades column will be published on Dec. 1, 2009. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 24.

Administration

Emil Chuck, Student Academic Affairs, gave a presentation at the 2009 SACNAS annual meeting for a workshop on beginning networking skills. In addition, Chuck gave a keynote presentation to more than 800 undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral and professional attendees as well as a small-group intensive workshop. SACNAS is a society dedicated to advancing Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

Theresa Lucado, Environmental Health and Safety Office, earned a professional certification as a certified industrial hygienist.

Peter Stearns, Provost, gave a speech at the National Academies at a session on “The Internationalization of American Research Universities: Policy Challenges” on Oct. 20. In addition, Stearns published a two-volume series titled “World History in Brief: Major Patterns of Change and Continuity.”

College of Health and Human Services

Lisa Eckenwiler, Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics, published an article titled “Care Worker Migration and Transnational Justice” in the July issue of Journal of Public Health Ethics.

Jack Hadley, Health Administration and Policy, and his colleague presented the paper titled “Medicare Fees and the Supply of Physicians’ Services” at a seminar hosted by the Office of Research, Development and Information of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at CMS headquarters in Baltimore in October.

Ali Weinstein, Center for the Study of Chronic Illness and Disability, and her colleagues published an article titled “Association Between Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety with Heart Rate Variability in Patients with Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators” in the October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Frank Whittington, Global and Community Health, will receive the Clark Tibbett’s Award from the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. The award is presented annually to individuals who have made significant contributions to gerontology and geriatrics education as an educator, mentor and scholar. Whittington will receive his award at the annual meeting of the association in early 2010.

College of Education and Human Development

Anastasia P. Samaras has been selected as the recipient of the Award for Outstanding Scholar from the College of Education at the University of Maryland. This award honors alumni who have made significant contributions to published research in their field. Selections are made by a college review committee.

Peter Dieke published an article titled “Africa in the Global Tourism Economy: Trend Patterns, Issues and Future Perspectives” in the August issue of The Harvard College Economics Review. He contributed a chapter titled “The Development of Cultural Diversity Tourism: Policy Framework and Options” to the book “Cultural Diversity: Issues, Challenges and Perspectives.” Dieke and a colleague published an article titled “Measuring the Economic Efficiency of Airports: A Simar-Wilson Methodology Analysis” in Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. Dieke also co-wrote an article “Technical Efficiency of African Hotels” in the International Journal of Hospitality Management.

Mike Behrmann and Shuangbao Wang received a recognition award on Oct. 12 from George Mason Intellectual Properties for licensing the Kellar Instructional Handheld System to A Deeper View LLC. The system is a browser-based wireless data collection system for collecting and automatically charting frequency, duration, accuracy and fluency data by teachers.

Russ Brayley, School of Recreation, Health and Tourism, completed a 20-minute documentary about the economic and regional development impacts of sacred site tourism in Palmyra, N.Y. The documentary, titled “Palmyra: This Place Matters,” was screened at an international film competition in Lecce, Italy, in October. Russ also presented a scholarly paper at the associated International Conference on Religious and Cultural Tourism sponsored by the University of Salento, Italy.

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Al Fuertes, New Century College, facilitated a Support Group Leader Workshop with the Alzheimer’s Association National Capital Area Chapter in Maryland on Oct. 2. He also spoke on “Teaching Through the Lens of Students” at the Innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference held at Mason on Oct. 5.

Gregory Koblentz, Public and International Affairs, published a book titled “Living Weapons: Biological Warfare and International Security” (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009).

Andrew Light, Philosophy, was the keynote speaker for the Humanities Week 2009 celebration at the Baker-Nord Center for Humanities at Case Western Reserve University on Oct. 22.

Cynthia Lum, Administration of Justice, was awarded a $199,888 grant from the Department of the Navy to conduct randomized controlled experiments to test the effectiveness of license plate recognition technology on auto thefts. In addition, her lecture titled “Ideas in American Policing” was published by the Police Foundation on Translating Police Research into Practice.

College of Science

Susie Crate, Environmental Science and Policy, and two graduate students received the International Award for Excellence in the area of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses. The award was presented to them by Common Ground Publishing for their paper titled “Social Capital as a Source of Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change in Developing Countries.” Crate and the students were also invited to present a plenary session at the second International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses, which will be held at the University of Queensland in Australia in July 2010, when the award will be formally presented.

Nicole Darnall, Environmental Science and Policy, gave a presentation titled “The Business of Corporate Sustainability” at the University of Granada in Spain on Sept. 30.

Monique van Hoek, Molecular and Microbiology, and two of her graduate students published a paper titled “Francisella novicida Forms In Vitro Biofilms Mediated by an Orphan Response Regulator” in the online form of the journal Microbial Ecology on Sept. 19. Francisella novicida is a bacterium related to the bacteria that causes the disease tularemia. The paper describes Francisella’s biofilm formation and the role of a two-component bacterial signaling system in the control of these biofilms.

Dann Sklarew, Environmental Science and Policy, was appointed the Commonwealth of Virginia’s academic representative to the Climate, Energy and Environmental Policy Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. This committee helps to guide D.C.-area governments in their pursuit of climate action, energy efficiency and other environment-improving activities, plans and policies.

College of Visual and Performing Arts

Chawky Frenn, Art, was a judge at the 51st Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 16 and 17, and a judge for Smithsonian Connects with the Arts on Oct. 4. He also curated the second in a series of Mason alumni and student exhibits called ARTOMASON at Coldwell Banker. The exhibition runs through March 28, 2010, with 22 participating exhibitors and 72 paintings, drawings, photographs, digital prints and three-dimensional wall sculptures.

Sue Wrbican, Art, was chosen by Rineke Dijkstra, a Dutch photographer, for a three-week artist residency to work with her at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. She also received a fellowship from the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Dean Pruitt was honored as ICAR’s Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the 2009 Welcome Dinner.

Wallace Warfield won the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Conflict Resolution.

Interdisciplinary

Sue Palsbo, Center for the Study of Chronic Illness and Disability, and Guoqing Diao, Statistics, presented an overview of telerehabilitation and demonstrated the telehaptic device “My Scrivener” at the annual meeting of the Telehealth Alliance of Oregon in October.

Karen Rosenblum, Sociology and Anthropology, and Ying Zhou and Karen Gentemann, Institutional Assessment, published an article titled “Ambivalence: Exploring the American University Experience of the Children of Immigrants” in the journal Race, Ethnicity and Education.

Robinson Professors

Spencer Crew, Robinson Professor of American, African American and Public History, gave a keynote address titled “Forgotten African Americans Activists on the Underground Railroad” for the African American Genealogical and Historical Society in Chicago. In addition, he was the keynote speaker at the National Park Service symposium and spoke on the topic “In the Vanguard of the Underground Railroad: John Brown and His Assault on Slavery” at Harpers Ferry on the 150th anniversary of the John Brown Raid.

Paul D’Andrea, Robinson Professor of Theater and English, gave a lecture on the genesis of his adaptation and relevance of the play titled “Nathan the Wise” to today’s political issues. The WETA/TV production of his adaptation of the play was also screened at the American Goethe Society, Goethe Institut and the German Embassy.

Robert Hazen, Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, received the Distinguished Public Service Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America at the society’s annual meeting in Portland, Ore. In addition, Hazen presented several lectures on “Mineral Evolution,” “Mineral Surfaces” and “Origins of Life” at the meeting. He also presented lectures on “Mineral Evolution” and “Genesis” at Miami University of Ohio.

Carma Hinton, Robinson Professor of Visual Culture and Chinese Studies, participated in the discussion at “Women Can Hold Up Half the Sky: A Fourth-Told Tale” at the Gender Studies Workshop, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. In addition, she gave a presentation titled “The Relationship Between Chinese Visual Art and Society” at Public Art and Illustration: The Cartoons and Art of Ding Cong held at the Ding Cong Symposium, Library of Congress.

John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Affairs, participated in a senior-level Ditchley Foundation Conference titled “The Prospects for Nigeria” in Oxford. He also gave a presentation titled “Islam and the Transformation of Identities in Nigeria” at the Mason conference on “African Identities in the Age of Obama.” In addition, he gave a lecture titled “Islam and Politics in Nigeria” at the U.S. Department of State.

James Trefil, Robinson Professor of Physics, gave presentations titled “Science to Judges” at the Law and Economics Center Board Meeting in Alexandria, Va., and “Darwin and Lincoln” to the California Appellate Judges Conference in Sacramento, Calif. In addition, the sixth edition of “The Sciences, an Integrated Approach,” which he wrote with Robert Hazen, was published.

School of Management

Jesse Bockstedt, Information Systems and Operations Management, presented the paper titled “Variety Seeking for Consumable and Non-Consumable Goods” at the Subjective Probability, Utility and Decision Making Conference in Rovereto, Italy.

Long Chen, Accounting, presented the paper titled “An Analysis of Auditor Responses to Potentially Misleading Disclosures by Managers: The Case of Pro Forma Earnings” at the 2009 American Accounting Association Annual Meetings in New York.

Richard Coffinberger, Management, presented the paper titled “Will Students and Faculty Soon be ‘Packing’ on Campus and in the Classroom? An Evaluation of the Likely Success of Efforts to Eliminate Bans on Carrying Concealed Weapons at the Public University and College Campuses” at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business in Colorado.

Sidhartha Das, Information Systems and Operations Management, presented the paper titled “Is Firm Performance in Technology Service Firms Linked to Process Innovations?” at the Academy of Management Meeting in Chicago.

Jim Hsieh, Finance, presented the paper titled “Informed Trading Before Analyst Downgrades: Evidence from Short Sellers” at the American Finance Association in San Francisco.

Maheshkumar Joshi, Management, presented papers titled “Entrepreneurship and Process Renewal in Service Firms: Effect of the Internet” at the Production and Operations Management Society Conference in Orlando and “An Innovation Model Informed by Empirical Innovation Studies” at the Mason Entrepreneurship Research Conference in Fairfax, Va.

Richard Klimoski, Management, presented the paper titled “When Knowledge Wins: Reflections on the Reactions to Adler and Harzing’s 2009 Article” at the Academy of Management Annual Conference in Chicago.

David Kravitz, Management, presented the paper titled “Causes and Consequences of Employee Perceptions of (Un)Fairness” at the Airline Tariff Publishing Company in Dulles, Va.

Ning Li, Management, was awarded the Summer Research Award from the Provost’s Office at Mason in 2009. In addition, Li published the presentation titled “Thank or Blame the One You Are Familiar With – Alliance Satisfaction Attribution and Consumer Behavioral Response to Partner Firms” in the proceedings from the American Marketing Association Educators’ Conference.

Michelle Marks, Management, presented papers titled “The Effect of Team Differences on Multiteam Alignment,” “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Collaboration” and “A Model of Team Management of Emotion, Process and Structure as Responses to Problematic Team Members” at the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research Conference in Colorado.

Mary Nash Shawver, Management, presented a paper titled “Understanding the Use of Consumer Survey Feedback for Organizational Change in Behavioral Healthcare” at the Academy of Management in Chicago.

Michael Naor, Information Systems and Operations Management, presented a paper titled “Is the Theory of Constraints a Good Managerial Theory According to Wacker’s Criteria?” at the Academy of Management Conference in Chicago.

Kevin Rockmann, Management, presented the paper titled “The Jerk, the Slacker and the Bonehead: A Model of Team Management of Emotion, Process and Structure as Responses to Problematic Team Members” at the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research Conference in Colorado.

Linda Samuels, Management, presented the paper titled “Lincoln and the Patent System: Inventor, Lawyer, Orator, President” at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business in Denver, Colo., and at the Symposium: Lincoln’s Legacy: Enduring Lessons of Executive Power held in Albany, N.Y.

George Wang, Finance, presented the paper titled “Weather, Inventory and Common Jump Dynamics in Natural Gas Futures and Spot Markets” at the Financial Management Association Annual Meeting in Nevada.

Fei Xie, Finance, published an article titled “Agency Problems at Dual-Class Companies” in the Journal of Finance in August.

School of Public Policy

Zoltan Acs delivered the keynote address titled “Measuring the Conditions for Entrepreneurial Innovation for Industrialization: The Global Entrepreneurship Index” at the UNU-WIDER, UNU-MERIT and UNIDO Workshop: Pathways to Industrialization in the 21st Century, New Challenges and Emerging Paradigms in Maastricht, Netherlands, on Oct. 22 and 23.

Katrin Anacker gave several presentations: “Immigrating, Assimilating, Cashing In? Analyzing Property Values in Suburbs of Immigrant Gateways” at the international conference titled The Diverse Suburb: History, Politics and Prospects held in Hempstead, N.Y., on Oct 22; “Caught in the Middle of the Inside Game/Outside Game? Evidence from Expert Interviews in Mature Suburbs in Ohio” at the 2009 annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in Crystal City, Va., on Oct. 3; and “Capturing Contemporary Housing Dynamics in Jefferson County, KY: The Difference Operationalization of the Dependent Variable Can Make” on Oct. 2. In addition, she also discussed three papers in a session titled “Routes to Suburban Revitalization” on Oct 23; and four papers in the session titled “The Sprawling City and the Diverse Suburb: International Comparisons” on Oct. 24. She also discussed two papers titled “Integrating the Social and Ecological Implications of Current Approaches to Planning” and “Does Smart Growth Matter to Urban Cities? Evaluating the Impact of Smart Growth Elements on Property Values in Baltimore, Md.” In addition, Anacker published a book titled “Analyzing Mature Suburbs in Ohio Through Property Values.”

Jack Goldstone gave a presentation on his ideas about future trajectories of global capitalism at a conference in Moscow on Sept. 10 and 11. The conference brought together Russian, Western European and American experts on comparative history and the sociology of capitalism to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis and the future of free markets.

Kingsley Haynes, Rajendra Kulkarni, and Roger Stough published chapters titled “Hidden Order in Traffic Flows Using Approximate Entropy: An Illustration” in the book titled “New Directions in Regional Economic Development; and “Algorithmic Complexity and Spatial Simplicity” in the book titled “Complexity and Spatial Networks.” In addition, Haynes, Kulkarni, Stough and Laurie Schintler published a paper titled “Exploring a Region Classifier Based on Kolmogorov” in the proceedings at the 13th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. They also wrote a paper titled “Exploring the U.S. Housing Bubble with K-entropy and PCA” which Stough presented to the 49th European Congress of the Regional Science International in Lodz, Poland, in August.

James Pfiffner was invited by Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins to testify at the hearing “Presidential Advice and Senate Consent: Past, Present and Future of Policy Czars” before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 22. The hearing focused on the history and current use of policy czars and how effective the structure is to manage the government. In addition, he published a book titled “Torture as Public Policy: Restoring the U.S. Credibility on the World Stage.”

Ramkishen Rajan gave presentations titled “Banking and Financial Systems” as part of the National Responses session of the Workshop on Global Implications of the Financial Crisis at Cornell University on Oct. 31 and “Capital Flow and Capital Account Management in Asia” at the High-Level Expert Group Meeting on Responding Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore on Oct. 8. He also spoke at the conference on Financial Sector Regulation and Reforms in Emerging Markets at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 23. In addition, he published a book titled “Monetary, Investment and Trade Issues in India.”

Mark Rozell and his colleague Gleaves Whitney edited the book titled “Testing the Limits: George W. Bush and the Imperial Presidency.”

Louise Shelley gave presentations titled “Human Trafficking” as part of the conference Redefining Central Asia at the Trudena Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto on Oct. 11, and “Commodification of Human Smuggling and Trafficking” at the Commodification of Illicit Flows: Labour Migration, Trafficking and Business conference at the Center for Diaspora and Transnational Studies held at the University of Toronto Oct. 9–11. Shelley also gave lectures in Krygystan as part of a grant from the U.S. State Department in September.

Bonnie Stabile published an article titled “What’s the Matter with Kansas? Legislative Debates Over Stem Cell Research in Kansas and Massachusetts” in Politics and the Life Sciences.

The Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering

Tomasz Arciszewski, Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering, and his colleague gave an invited lecture titled “Visual Thinking in Inventive Design: Three Perspectives” during the First International Conference on Soft Computing in Civil and Structural Engineering in Madeira, Portugal, in September. In addition, the paper was published as a chapter in the book titled “Soft Computing in Civil and Structural Engineering.” Arciszewski also gave a talk titled “Consciousness: Seven Approaches” during the inaugural Faculty Development Brown Bag seminar series organized by the Mason Center for Consciousness and Transformation in October.

John Shortle and Chun-Hung Chen, Systems Engineering and Operations Research, received a three-year, $747,980 funding award from the Department of Energy for their project titled “New Approaches for Rare-Event-Simulation and Decision Making.”

Arun Sood, Computer Science, received a two-year, $149,832 grant from the National Science Foundation for the project titled “US-Africa Eger Research: Initiative to Promote CERT Capacity Building in Africa.”

Gheorghe Tecuci, Computer Science, David Schum, Systems Engineering and Operations Research, and Mihai Boicu, Applied Information Technology, received an award from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency as part of the National University Research Initiative for the project titled “A Computational Theory of Intelligence Analysis.” The yearly amount is $150,000, with two base years and three optional years.

Xinyuan (Frank) Wang, Computer Science, was selected as the recipient of the 2009 Volgenau School Rising Star Faculty Research Award. Wang will be honored at the School’s fall faculty meeting and will be awarded $1,000.